Article 13585 of alt.sex.cthulhu:
From: bs904@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Andrew Nellis)
Newsgroups: alt.sex.cthulhu
Subject: POD: Spam busters?
Date: 2 Mar 1997 01:00:04 GMT



The situation has become intolerable.  We now have a ratio of spam to
actual messages of about 400 to 1.  It is massive understatement to say
that it is not conducive to conversation, humour, or anything else.  It
has, effectively, slain the newsgroup.

I had a scan through other alt.sex newsgroups and I was surprised to see
that this one is one of the *worst* of the lot for spam.  A lot of
newsgroups are fighting back -- and winning!

There are two things that are done to combat spam, from what I have seen. 
The first is some form of message canceling, be it manual or by automated
spambot.  A spambot looking for messages cross-posted to more than three
groups would eliminate at least three quarters of the spam.

The second, and most important thing is complaining to the sites that are
sending the spam.  While you can't stop them if they own the site, a lot
do not, and from all accounts it is darned effective.  After all, these
sites know that spam eats up their precious system resources.

I would love to help with both of these and take back our newsgroup, but
unfortunately the host I use precludes it me from most of it.  What I
/can/ do, and what I will start doing, is downloading spam so I can look
at the headers and complain to their sites.

If anyone out there wants to give me a hand, please speak up!  Post your
message here rather than e-mail so everyone can see who is offering to do
what, and we can get organized.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, there were new stories here on a
regular basis.  If we can get this newgroup running again, I promise to
sit myself down in front of the keyboard and bang out something
specifically for alt.sex.cthulhu.  Don't let the spammy bastards win! 
Give 'em Chaos!  Ia!  Ia!  Cthulhu fhtagn!


--
 +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+ ...........................................
 |  Andrew Nellis              | ."When you see the crowd going one way,   .
 |  bs904@freenet.carleton.ca  | . run like hell in the other direction."  .
 +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+ .................Charles Bukowski..........